Book Review: ‘Ghost Hope’, by Ripley Patton

Review of Previous Volumes in the series

About the Author

Ripley Patton lives in Portland, Oregon with one cat, two teenagers, and a man who wants to live on a boat. She is an award-winning short story writer and author of The PSS Chronicles, a YA paranormal thriller series.

About the Book

Olivia Black does not feel safe. Nightmares plague her sleep and haunt her days. If she has to endure one more minute stuck in a safe house in rainy Portland, she’s going to lose it. When Mike Palmer sneaks off to find her sister Kaylee without her, it’s the last straw. She has to do something.

Then Palmer’s hackers find the Dome on a satellite feed: dark, abandoned and smack in the middle of the Oregon desert three hundred miles from where it started. If they can reach it before anyone else, they can crack the computer systems and access every piece of information on PSS the CAMFers and The Hold have ever collected.

But in order to do that, Olivia must face her fears in a race against all the forces that have ever pitted themselves against her. She must unravel decades of deceit to reveal the true origins of Psyche Sans Soma to the world at last.

Book Review

Once again, Ripley Patton delivers. Ghost Hope is a great ending to a series with many a high. While the writing is tight, the plot engaging, and the characters well developed, for me the main reason to read this book remains its lead character, Olivia Black.

There is still quite a dearth in strong female characters available in youth adult literature. While there have been some strong ones that have made an appearance in recent years, these are not enough to counter the stereotypes that still abound.

Olivia continues to be a character I feel many a young female reader can connect with. Most importantly thought, because the chapters of the book are written from different points of view, we also see what others see, giving legitimacy, in a way, to Olivia’s strength and leadership. She is seen as a threat by the enemy, which implies she is powerful; she is seen as inspirational by family and friends, which implies that she is worth looking up to; she is seen with begrudging respect by colleagues, which implies that she does not hold back because of her gender; and she is seen as beautiful and attractive by a romantic interest, which implies that she can do all of the above and be a woman.

I also liked that although Olivia has the many concerns of any young woman her age (she turned 18 during the course of this book), she really doesn’t fall into the typical female character stereotypes. For example, although she is clearly in love with Marcus and is heartbroken about his memory loss, she doesn’t fall into a mess because of it. The pain is present and it comes and goes as she interacts with him, but she isn’t defined by it.

Similarly, when she loses someone very close to her (you’ll find out yourself who), she is again heartbroken. Although this death deeply affects her—and we see the effects—Olivia isn’t defined by it. Quite the contrary actually; she uses it as a way to step, once and for all, into the leadership role that was meant for her for quite some time.

Ghost Hope is a great book for young adults and adults alike, male or female. Action-packed, well thought out, touching upon many important concepts (such as the elimination of prejudices by increasing one’s perception to really see beyond each person’s outer skin), and featuring an actual strong female character rather than one seemingly is so, Ripley Patton has finished off the PSS Chronicles on a high.